The Incident: What Happened?
The conflict started with a teenage girl, spurred on by her mother, getting her hair done in the style known as highlights. She wanted a new look since she felt it expressed the style and personality changing inside her. Her father saw the new hair on her head and went crazy. He hadn’t been consulted over the change and felt that he must punish his daughter for what he thought was a gargantuan decision she made without his approval. In a fit of reaction, he chopped off her hair as punishment to teach her a lesson on responsibility and respect for authority.
It was the opposite of that. The girl learns nothing about obedience; she only gets humiliation and betrayal. When her mother, who granted the permission for the highlights, found out what had transpired, she was mad. The story became public when the mother put up a post about what happened online, and hence the debate on parenting styles, children’s autonomy, and co-parenting challenges. The incident very quickly went viral, surfacing anger, but also sympathy, and indeed, it made most reflect on the boundaries of discipline and emotional abuse.
